


The Dead Of Night

by Polarnacht



Series: Broken [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, Broken Parabatai Bond, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt No Comfort, Jace Wayland-centric, Sad, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polarnacht/pseuds/Polarnacht
Summary: Jace follows his father willingly to protect the people he loves. He thinks he knows Valentine and his methods, but he underestimates him. Valentine doesn't want Jace as he is now. He wants to break him to make him his and his alone.This is a prequel to "Pain" and part of the "Broken" series. Though this story does not have a happy ending, the last part in the series will.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Valentine Morgenstern & Jace Wayland
Series: Broken [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840363
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	The Dead Of Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OliviaLuzia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliviaLuzia/gifts).



> For OliviaLuzia, who loves a tormented Jace just as much as I do. I hope this is what you had in mind.

The decission was easily made. Given the choice between sacrificing his own freedom and the life of the people he loved the most, Jace didn't need to think twice. Even if it was reluctant, he followed his father and his men through the opened portal.

It was not for too long Jace told himself. They would find him. Alec would find him. They were Parabatai and this meant Alec would be able to track him everywhere. Except when he was surrounded by water. Which, of course, he was on Valentine's ship, the Morningstar. But somewhen the ship had to moor again, at least that was what Jace told himself. As soon as the ship would moor or Jace would set foot on solid ground, Alec would feel him. And safe him.

He definitely was in need of a saviour. His father was nothing like he remembered him. It was true, Valentine had never been an affectionate father, he had punished Jace countless times for tiny mistakes. But he had always done it to make him stronger. To make him better. A fiercer warrior, a braver man. This time Valentine punished to break him. And the difference was essential.

At the beginning of his ordeal Valentine thought he could make a willing follower out of Jace, a Circle member just as his new parents had been and countless others. But Jace refused. There was no way he would fight in a war against Alec. He would rather die than being on different sides than his Parabatai.

So he refused, taking the beatings where he dangled from the ceiling from heavy chains stoically. The whip his father used to punish him bit harshly and mercilessly in his flesh, leaving deep, bleeding cuts behind. The first couple of times he was granted an iratze, closing the wounds neatly without leaving marks, the pain mostly gone as soon as the iratze started to work.

Soon, Jace was denied any healing rune, the cuts closing slowly the mundane way until they were carved into his skin even deeper the next time, leaving permanent scars behind. Scars and pain. It didn't take long until Jace couldn't remember how his body had felt without the pain.

He cursed and spat at his father, but silently he thanked him for his harsh upbringing that had made him strong enough to live through the pain and the ordeal. He knew, even if it took time, Alec would come.

Valentine changed his tactic when he realized that no matter how harsh the beating was, Jace didn't waver or submit to him. To say that he was furious was putting it mildly. That his own son - his creation - dared to disobey him drove him mad with anger. He didn't see the irony that his own methods enabled Jace to survive.

But Valentine was creative. Instead of beating up Jace, he forced Jace to watch. He made him watch how his people tortured downworlders. He laughed when he heard Jace begging his men to stop. A cruel, humorless laugh that grew more intense when he saw Jace not only begging with his voice, but also with his eyes. But stopping came with a price, and even if it nearly broke Jace, he wasn't ready to pay it. He would never follow bis father willingly. So he stood there and watched, his eyes wide open to grant the victims at least this last dignity to not being ignored, overlooked or forgotten. He watched to remember. To be able to take revange for them. Later. When Alec had saved him.

Valentine was even more furious when even this didn't put Jace in his place. Jace was his to shape, to form to his liking. He was his alone. He needed to break him to put him back together again just as he saw fit. He would break him, no matter what. So Valentine increased the intervals of the beatings. He let him starve. He let him bleed. Yet it was Jace who gave him the tool to finally break him.

After an exeptional harsh beating, Jace was shaking with dry sobs, no more tears left to cry, no voice left to scream. Beaten, but still whole. But when he was let down from the ceiling, his hand found their rune, holding on to it tigthtly. To his and Alec's rune. And Jace relaxed.

Valentine watched with hungry eyes, a smug smile on his lips. Finally he had found the right weapon to make his son his. Jace fought like never before in his life, when the Silent Brother started to severe thir bond. He kicked and punched, but Valentine's men overhwelemd him and bound him to the table with no chance to break free.

He screamed in agony, his vocal cords nearly snapping from the strain. But it was not them that snapped. The pain in his soul and his heart was much worse than the pain from his bleeding rune. The moment the bond snapped, he felt himself break. Alec wouldn't come for him. He wouldn't feel him anymore.

But though he broke, he refused to be put together again. He was broken, but he didn't submit, no matter how harsh the punishments got. Valentine told himself to be patient. He had time. Time that his son didn't have, given the state he was in. Soon, Jace would be his again, and his alone, with no Parabatai in between. He just had to wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are loved 💙


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